28 minute read
The newest department, latest leadership, and more Plus a look at the milestones of the last 200 years.
Emergency Medicine Becomes Newest Department
Department of Emergency Medicine Chair Ramsey Herrington, M.D.
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July 1 was the beginning of a new fiscal year
at the University, and with it came the official formation of a new department, the Department of Emergency Medicine—the first new department at the Larner College of Medicine in a decade— and the appointment of Ramsey Herrington, M.D., as the department’s inaugural chair.
Emergency Medicine had its tentative beginnings at UVM in the 1950 and 1960s and has functioned for more than 50 years as a division of the Department of Surgery. Until this summer the Larner College of Medicine was the only medical school in New England, and one of only eight allopathic medical schools in the country, without an academic Department of Emergency Medicine. This May, the University’s Board of Trustees considered Dean Page’s request to form a distinct department, which had the overwhelming approval of Larner faculty, and agreed with the need to take this step.
“Besides aligning Larner with the national standard, the formation of the new Department of Emergency Medicine puts us in a strong position to build on the progress made in this area at UVM,” said Page. Over the last five years, emergency medicine has doubled its faculty from 19 to 40, built a nationally competitive residency program, positioned academically focused faculty at affiliate hospitals across the University of Vermont Health Network, and greatly expanded funded research efforts.
“This progress has been led most recently by Ramsey Herrington, M.D., and I am pleased that Dr. Herrington will continue his leadership as the inaugural chair of the new department,” said Page.
An associate professor of surgery, Dr. Herrington joined UVM in 2006. In 2021 he was appointed the first Emergency Medicine Health Care Service leader, and he has served as division chief of emergency medicine since 2017. In addition, he serves as Specialty Council Chair, Emergency Medicine, for the UVM Health Network. Under his leadership, the UVM Health Network successfully launched its first accredited residency in emergency medicine, and he led the recruitment of numerous high-quality faculty members.
Dr. Herrington is involved in ongoing research in numerous areas in his field and has published in such journals as the Annals of Emergency Medicine, Respiratory Care, and the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open. He has shown a strong commitment to teaching, having to date guided approximately 50 Larner medical students into Emergency Medicine residencies and careers, both here in Vermont and throughout the nation. Among the awards he has received are the 2011 H. Gordon Page Clinician of the Year Award, the 2016 John H. Davis Service Award, and the 2017 University of Vermont Medical Center Living the Leadership Philosophy Award. Dr. Herrington’s longstanding commitment to advancing equity in his division was recognized with the College’s 2020 Gender Equity Champion Award.
1804 John Pomeroy begins teaching medicine to students in his Burlington home.
1822 Nathan Smith delivers first formal lecture at UVM “Medical Department.”
1829 Completion of the Medical Department’s first home, now known as Pomeroy Hall.
1837 The economic “Panic of 1837” contributes to the suspension of medical instruction.
1854 Medical classes resume, under first official dean, Samuel Thayer.
1884 Philanthropist John Purple Howard donates an expanded second home for the Medical Department.
1885 First African American UVM medical student, Thomas James Davis, graduates.
1894 Charles Caverly, M.D.1881, describes the first U.S. polio epidemic, in Rutland County.
1899 The University assumes administrative control of what is now the College of Medicine.
1903 The College Building is destroyed by fire on December 3.
1905 The College’s third home, today known as Dewey Hall, is completed.
AFTER EXTENSIVE NATIONAL SEARCHES, the Larner College of Medicine welcomed two new department chairs this summer.
Rebecca A. Aslakson, M.D., Ph.D., joined the College in September as chair of the Department of Anesthesiology. Dr. Aslakson, who received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, comes to UVM from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where she was professor in both the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine and the Department of Primary Care and Population Health in its Palliative Care Section. In 2019, she was appointed division chief of Adult Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford. She was also a member of both the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and the Stanford Cancer Center.
Robert Althoff, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at UVM, was appointed chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Care Service Leader for Psychiatry, effective August 1. Dr. Althoff served as interim chair of the department since October 1, 2021, succeeding Dr. Robert Pierattini.
Dr. Althoff, received his M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. He has been a member of the UVM faculty and UVMHN Medical Group since 2006, and since 2017 has served as medical director for psychiatry at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH), and division chief, Adirondack Division, in the Department of Psychiatry. He has also been involved in clinical care across the UVM Health Network. From 2014 to 2017 he was executive vice president of UVM’s Research Center for Children, Youth and Families.
UVM Health Network Names Eappen Next President and CEO
The University of Vermont Health Network
named Sunil “Sunny” Eappen, M.D., M.B.A., as the health system’s next president and chief executive officer, following a national search. Eappen, who comes from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will lead the organization forward in the next phase of its evolution into a more integrated and equitable health system. He will be responsible for oversight of all operations, including the flagship academic medical center, five community hospitals, children’s hospital, a multi-specialty physician group, and home health and hospice agency. His appointment is effective November 28.
“The UVM Health Network is a model for how we can provide and preserve high-quality health care in our communities, while innovating and educating through academic medicine,” said Eappen. “I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to work alongside, learn from and support thousands of dedicated providers and staff across Vermont and Northern New York, and to deliver on the promise of the Network. Together, we will address our challenges and work to provide expert, equitable, value-based health care for our patients and communities.”
Eappen most recently served as chief medical officer and senior vice president for medical affairs for Brigham and Women’s and as an associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. He was named interim president of Brigham and Women’s from March 2021 to December 2021, when a permanent candidate was selected. He is the author of numerous published articles and a national speaker on topics including optimizing OR efficiency, surgical checklist implementation and change management.
He succeeds John R. Brumsted, M.D., who is retiring after leading the health system for more than 10 years.
“I’m incredibly pleased with the result of the search, and I’m dedicated to ensuring a smooth leadership transition for our health system,” said Brumsted.
SENATOR AND VA SECRETARY VISIT LARNER
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former chair and current member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough held a special Town Hall with medical students at the College in April. Their discussion featured remarks and a Q&A session that focused on career opportunities for physicians at the VA.
UPP participants working in the Clinical Simulation Laboratory.
“UPP” Program Clarifies Journey for Pre-Med Students
With the goal of one day becoming a physician, Kiana Heredia started her undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College as a pre-medical student. Faced with a course load of classes such as organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and physics, Heredia says she began to second-guess the gut feeling that she belonged in the medical field.
“An Intro to Physics course was my first taste of what it meant to be a pre-med student and as a newly minted first-year undergraduate college student, it was nothing like I expected,” wrote Heredia in a March 2022 post for the UVM Larner Med Blog. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘This can’t be something I want to do for the rest of my life—kinetic energy? magnetic fields? What am I doing here?’” she recalled. In addition, she said, “This Intro to Physics course shaped my first academic relationship to medicine and with no family members or friends in the healthcare field, I was convinced that these pre-med requirements and medicine were synonymous, in meaning and experience, without any room for expansion.”
Heredia graduated with a degree in psychology, but it wasn’t until a few years later, after volunteering at a geriatric facility and fertility clinic in Spain, that she rediscovered her love of medicine and began her path back to a career as a physician.
Now Heredia is a Class of 2024 Larner medical student. She recently helped Assistant Professor of Pediatrics L.E. Faricy, M.D., create the URiM Pathway to Pediatrics (UPP) program to assist others who may encounter the doubts she experienced during her undergraduate years. The UPP program originated from a grant proposal Faricy and Heredia developed with Nicole Obongo ’24, Annaliese Lapides ‘24 and Mialovena Exume ’24, for American Academy of Pediatrics funding to support events aimed at increasing workforce diversity and supporting students historically underrepresented in medicine (URiM.)
When the grant proposal was not accepted, Faricy approached her chair, Lewis First, M.D., to see if the Department of Pediatrics would be interested in funding the program. Not only did First agree to funding the program, he also became an integral part of the event.
In April, the inaugural cohort of 14 participants including undergraduate pre-med college students from UVM, SUNY-Plattsburgh, Community College of Vermont, Saint Michael’s College, Middlebury College, and Castleton University, along with two students from Burlington High School, began the day-long event with hands-on group skills sessions, including a “Clinical Mystery Case” session led by First, and interactive simulation stations to practice colonoscopy and laparoscopic skills, care for a newborn just after delivery, learn pointof-care ultrasound techniques, treat a child in respiratory distress, understand vital signs, and perform lumbar punctures.
Like most participants, Ahmed Alrai, a UVM rising senior, found the event gave him the focus and encouragement he needed. “For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a physician and the UPP program just gave me more motivation to fulfill my dreams,” Alrai said.
READ MORE ABOUT THE UPP EXPERIENCE AT MED.UVM.EDU/VTMEDICINE/WEB-EXTRAS 1906 The UVM Medical Alumni Association is founded.
1910 The Flexner Report sparks reform at the College.
1924 Dorothy Lang is the first female UVM M.D. recipient.
1938 Faculty committee administers College for two years and initiates reforms.
1940 Dallas Boushey joins the Anatomy Department as janitor and lab assistant. He would go on to spend 50 years at the College, eventually becoming an anatomy instructor and receiving an honorary Doctor of Science degree.
1959 Moses Alfred Haynes, M.D., becomes the first African American faculty member, but leaves after only a short time.
1962 Jackson J.W. Clemmons, Ph.D., M.D., now emeritus professor of pathology, joins the College as the second African American faculty member. He will teach and conduct research for more than 30 years.
1967 The “New Curriculum” promotes early clinical experience.
1968 The College moves “up the hill” to the Given Building.
1974 UVM Cancer Center founded.
1980 Maine Medical Center affiliation begins.
LARNER ANNOUNCES TWO NEW ASSOCIATE DEANS
IN MAY, LEILA AMIRI, PH.D., WAS NAMED Larner’s next associate dean for admissions. Dr. Amiri comes to the College from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, where she was associate dean for admissions and recruitment. Previously, she was director of admissions and financial aid for the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She holds a Ph.D. from Northcentral University, and M.A. and B.S. degrees from the University of South Florida. Also in May, Karen George, M.D., M.P.H., was named Larner’s new associate dean for students. George was previously clinical associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and chair of the Council for Residency Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
George served as director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center/Geisel School of Medicine for 17 years and is a course advisor and co-director of the Fourth Year Transition to Residency Course at George Washington University College of Medicine. She also serves as senior fellow of women’s health policy at the Institute for Medicaid Innovation. George received a B.S. degree from Bates College, M.D. from Ohio State University College of Medicine, and an M.P.H. from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
Leila Amiri, Ph.D. (top) and Karen George, M.D., M.P.H.
Latest Frymoyer Scholar Programs Announced
This summer, Larner Teaching Academy Director Kathryn Huggett, Ph.D., and the Frymoyer Scholars Program Review Committee announced the names and respective investigators aligned with each of three faculty group projects selected to receive 2022 Frymoyer Scholars funding.
Supported by a philanthropic fund—the John W. and Nan P. Frymoyer Fund for Medical Education—the Frymoyer Scholars Program recognizes outstanding medical education and promotes teaching that emphasizes the art of patient care. This fund supports interprofessional education and practice and provides funding for physicians and nurses who are The late John W. Frymoyer, M.D., and Nan Frymoyer actively engaged in teaching UVM medical and nursing students and who embody the best qualities of the clinician-teacher.
The Frymoyer Fund pays tribute to the deep legacy of the late John Frymoyer, M.D., dean of UVM’s College of Medicine from 1991 to 1999, and his late wife Nan, a community health nurse who had a strong interest in patient advocacy. The fund was established in 2000 through generous donations from J. Warren and Lois McClure, the Frymoyers, and many community donors, as well as the Larner College of Medicine Alumni Association.
The 2022 funded projects focus on improving newborn resuscitation in community hospital settings; on improving interprofessional collaboration in medical education; and on developing an interdisciplinary gender affirming care model in the emergency department. Read more about the Frymoyer Scholars Program at:
med.uvm.edu/teachingacademy/frymoyer
QUOTED
– Class of ’24 medical student Finlay Pilcher, commenting on her New Hampshire/
Vermont Schweitzer Fellowship project that aimed to improve HPV vaccination in
Lamoille County, Vt., to protect adolescents from several types of cancer. For this work Pilcher was awarded a 2022 Excellence in Public Health Award from the U.S.
Public Health Service (USPHS) Physician Professional Advisory Committee.
PARSONS LEAVES TO LEAD AAIM; DIXON BECOMES INTERIM CHAIR
Polly Parsons, M.D., who for
16 years chaired the Larner Department of Medicine, became president and CEO of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) on October 1. AAIM has more than 11,000 faculty and administrator members in departments of internal medicine in medical schools and teaching hospitals. Taking on the position of interim chair of the department is Professor of Medicine Anne Dixon, M.A., BM BCh. Dixon, who joined the UVM faculty in 2001, has served as director of the Vermont Lung Center since 2019. In addition, she is chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and an attending physician at the UVM Medical Center. In April of this year the UVM Graduate College named her as one of four 2022-2023 University Scholars.
CARR ELECTED AAAS FELLOW
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)—the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has honored Frances Carr, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and UVM Cancer Center member, with election as a AAAS Fellow, among the most distinctive honors within the scientific community. AAAS recognized Carr “for distinguished contributions to the field of thyroid hormone biology and pathology, and for exemplary leadership positions in two universities and major contributions to science policy for U.S. government agencies.”
SILVEIRA HONORED FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE
Jay Silveira, Ph.D., assistant
professor of biochemistry, was selected to receive a 2022 UVM Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes faculty for excellent undergraduate instruction, innovation in teaching methods and ability to motivate and challenge students. Silveira teaches undergraduate courses in biochemistry fundamentals, explaining the molecular mechanisms behind how bodies function in both healthy and disease states. In addition, he serves as faculty advisor to the UVM Biochemistry Society undergraduate club.
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Larner alum Nick Koch, M.D.’14 has been
named clinical director of the UVM Clinical Simulation Laboratory (CSL). Koch will be the laboratory’s fourth director, replacing former Associate Professor of Anesthesiology Vincent Miller, M.D., who served in the position for five years. The CSL is an important training ground for both burgeoning and current healthcare professionals. It serves as a hub for hands-on, interactive work with standardized patients, manikins, and simulated clinical cases for students studying at Larner and CNHS as well as professionals from UVMMC, the UVM Health Network, and beyond.
MARILYN J. CIPOLLA, PH.D. NAMED CHAIR OF ELECTRICAL AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Marilyn J. Cipolla, Ph.D., a
member of the Larner faculty for nearly 20 years, has been named chair of the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering in UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS). Cipolla began her career at UVM earning her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from CEMS in 1988, and subsequently earned both her M.S. and Ph.D. at UVM in Cell and Molecular Biology. Cipolla is a professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences with joint appointments in Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and in Pharmacology.
WILCOX SELECTED FOR ELAM FELLOWSHIP
Rebecca Wilcox, M.D.,
professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and associate dean for faculty affair, has been selected as a member of the 2022-2023 class of fellows participating in the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program at Drexel University College of Medicine. Established in 1995, ELAM is the nation’s only in-depth program focused on preparing senior women faculty at schools of medicine, dentistry, and public health for institutional leadership positions. Wilcox is one of 72 new ELAM fellows.
1985 Pediatrician Carol Phillips, M.D., becomes first female department chair at the College.
2001 Health Science Research Facility opens.
2003 The Vermont Integrated Curriculum debuts.
2005 Medical Education Pavilion and new Dana Medical Library opens.
2009 Courtyard at Given “building within a building” opens.
2015 The College’s Teaching Academy is founded.
2016 The College is renamed to honor the support of philanthropist and alumnus Robert Larner, M.D.’42.
2019 University Distinguished Professor Mark Nelson, Ph.D., elected to National Academy of Sciences.
2020 Larner faculty, students and staff pivot in myriad ways during the pandemic.
2021 Formal launch of the Connecticut Branch Campus with Nuvance Health at Danbury and Norwalk Hospitals.
When she joined UVM Children’s Hospital Pediatric Primary Care practice in the 1990s, Associate Professor Catherine Rude, M.D., struggled to support her patients with mental health concerns. The practice did not include psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers, and connecting children to off-site specialists took great effort, Rude said.
“It was challenging to get psychiatric care for children. Wait times were extremely long and the paperwork hurdles that patients had to go through to see a mental health clinician were insurmountable for many families,” said Rude. UVM Pediatric Primary Care is removing barriers to mental health care with an evidencebased Primary Care Mental Health Integration program, piloted with support from the UVM Health Network. Stan Weinberger, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and pediatric primary care division chief, Rude, Michelle Streeter, R.N., and Logan Hegg, Psy.D., clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, lead the effort in partnership with Maureen Leahy, M.Ed., director of psychiatry and neurology healthcare services, UVM Medical Group, Sara Pawlowski, M.D., primary care mental health integration division chief and assistant professor of psychiatry, Clara Keegan, M.D., associate professor of family medicine, and Kerry Stanley, LICSW, lead behavioral health care manager.
This team-based approach amplifies UVM Children’s Hospital’s comprehensive mental health services by integrating psychology, social work and psychiatry with primary care. Within this model, primary care clinicians and mental health specialists coordinate each patient’s care with in-person huddles, information-sharing and collaborative care that responds to individual patient preferences. “The goal is to increase access in a timely and thoughtful process, providing seamless whole-person care as a team,” said Hegg. “By integrating mental and behavioral health providers with complementary skills, we are building support for kids, families and pediatric clinician colleagues.” The primary care setting can make a large impact in detecting and managing mental health issues, especially among underserved populations, Hegg said. Opportunities for routine mental health screening, assessment and preventative intervention give entrée to people who traditionally lack access, including families with lower socio-economic means, New Americans, and gender expansive youth. Providing youth with a place to work on mental health concerns builds on their longitudinal relationship with a primary care clinician. Integrating mental health and primary care meets patients and providers where they are, the same day a patient presents in clinic. Struggling patients and families receive care in the exam rooms along with wellness check-ups and immunizations, decreasing stigma and disparities. Providers appreciate the responsive support. “It’s been so helpful to have a comprehensive mental health team integrated into primary care. Now these specialists are on staff in the practice and patients can make an appointment with them in the office,” said Rude. Added Hegg, “If we can get ahead of the curve, we won’t be scrambling as much with emergency “Now these department visits and crisis evaluations. It’s been a specialists are real game-changer for the 7,500 kids and families on staff in the practice and who entrust us for their primary care.” The primary care mental health integration team supports training multidisciplinary providers to impatients can make plement and expand this model of care, developing an appointment clinicians who appreciate medical-psychiatric comorwith them in the office.” bidity and the importance of team-based care in a primary care medical home. While the pilot rolled out in a few primary care clinics, increased mental health – CATHERINE RUDE, M.D. care staffing will spread across all 37 UVM Medical Center primary care sites over the next few years. “Our plan is to bring this model to all UVM Health Network primary care clinics,” said Hegg. “We want this to be the standard to how primary care is delivered in our region.”
Match Day 2022 was celebrated at the UVM Davis Center.
Back in Person, Back in Style
MATCH DAY 2022
The Class of 2022’s medical school journey turned upside-down in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a stay-at-home order, a pivot to remote learning, and put their clinical training on hold.
Match Day—celebrated on the same day at medical schools across the country—marks a critical moment in the lives of soon-to-be M.D. recipients—the moment when they learn where they’ll spend the next three to seven years for specialty training. After having the coronavirus control so much of their lives, the senior students had to put one more thing in the hands of an outside entity—the National Resident Matching Program, and its computerized algorithm that aligns the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency program directors, in order to produce the best possible outcome for filling training positions at U.S. teaching hospitals.
UVM’s traditional in-person event—set aside in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions— features a faculty physician bagpiper leading the senior class into the venue, mascot “Dr. Moo,” a crowd of supporters, cheers, tears, smiles and balloons. There is even a Match Day theme (floral this year) selected by each graduating class.
READ MORE ABOUT MATCH DAY: MED.UVM.EDU/VTMEDICINE/WEB-EXTRAS CLASS OF 2022 MATCH RESULTS
114
STUDENTS MATCHED
63
INSTITUTIONS
14
IN VERMONT
53
Sarah Clark ............................... University of Vermont Medical Center Faith Wilson Genereux .................... Vanderbilt University Medical Center Ryan Harned....................... University of Connecticut School of Medicine Francis Mtuke........................... Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle) Anna Quinlan............................. University of Vermont Medical Center Irene Sue ............................... University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
DERMATOLOGY
Seneca Hutson............................................. Mayo Clinic (Minn.)
DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY
Sameer Alidina......................................Rochester General Hospital Christian Brooks ............................Montefiore Medical Center/Einstein
EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Patrick Clarke ............................ University of California San Francisco Marlijne Cook ....................................... University of Utah Health Carolyn Geraci ........................ Hennepin County Medical Center (Minn.) Prasanna Kumar ....................... Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital Tierra Lynch ........................................ University of Utah Health Taylor Marquis ........................ Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital Elena Martel ..............................................Stanford Health Care Carley Mulligan ...................................... University of Utah Health Kaitlyn Peper ........................................... Albany Medical Center Maha Saleem ........................................ Yale-New Haven Hospital Nikkole Turgeon .............................. Boston University Medical Center Jenna Wells ............................................UMass Chan – Baystate
FAMILY MEDICINE/RURAL HEALTH
Sheridan Finnie ......................... University of North Carolina Hospitals
FAMILY MEDICINE
Mary Ann Kelly Barnum .................................. AdventHealth Florida Elizabeth Baumgartner .................................Concord Hospital (N.H.) Karla Brandao-Viruet ......................... Boston University Medical Center Olivia Cooper .................................. Mountain AHEC Asheville (N.C.) Emma Hall .................................Family Medicine Res of Idaho, Boise Malla Keefe .................................Family Medicine Res of Idaho, Boise Ray Mak ............................ Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa (Calif.) Michelle Oberding .......................................Maine Medical Center Myrna Sanchez-Grew .............. Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (Calif.) Lauren Struck .............................. Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Jacob Weiss ................................... University of Colorado – Denver
GENERAL SURGERY
Megan Boyer .......................... University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Emily Eakin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Boston University Medical Center Collin Montgomery ..................... University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Emily Straley ........................................ University of Utah Health
INTERNAL MEDICINE
Amelia Anderson .................................... University of Utah Health Richard Brach............................................ UCLA Medical Center Sara Brennan ............................. University of Vermont Medical Center Francesca Garofalo ........University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (Madison) Lizzi Hahn ........................................Cleveland Clinic Foundation Erick MacLean ...................................... University of Utah Health Rose Martin ....................................... UMass Chan Medical School Cinduja Nathan .................................. Loma Linda University (Calif.) Ashleigh Peterson .........................Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Lauren Schlussel ......................... Cedars-Sinai Med Center (Los Angeles) Anya Srikureja ...............................ISMMS Mount Sinai Hospital (N.Y.) Michael Tabet .......................... University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Angela Troia .................... MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (D.C.) Allison Tzeng .......................................Temple University Hospital
INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY
Adrian Berg............................... Emory University School of Medicine
MEDICINE-PEDIATRICS
Sylvia Lane .............................. University of Maryland Medical Center
NEUROLOGY
Kelly Chan ........................ University of California Davis Medical Center Leah Miller .......................................... University of Utah Health Rachel Madhur....................................... Yale-New Haven Hospital Adam Morehead .......................... University of Vermont Medical Center Sabrina Wirth ............................ University of Vermont Medical Center Gia Eapen ........................... Case Western/MetroHealth Medical Center Lauren Gernon ........................... University of Vermont Medical Center Kalin Gregory-Davis ................ Brown University/Women & Infants Hospital Alexandra Kuzma ...................Crozer-Chester Medical Center (Upland, Pa.) Zeynep Tek ..................................................Danbury Hospital
OPHTHALMOLOGY
Delaney Curran .................................... UMass Chan Medical School Aram Garewal...................SUNY Downstate Medical Center (Brooklyn, N.Y.) Jeremy Greenberg........................................... SUNY Stony Brook Ian McClain........................... University of Colorado School of Medicine
ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY
Michael Barnum ..........................................Orlando Health (Fla.) Benjamin Kagan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .University of Vermont Medical Center John O’Keefe ........................Prisma Health-University of South Carolina Alexa Pius ...............................................Stanford Health Care Samuel Raszka .......................... Cedars-Sinai Med Center (Los Angeles) Peter Twining ..................SUNY Downstate Medical Center (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
OTOLARYNGOLOGY
Kyle Leonard .....................................Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit) Nicole Wershoven .............................. University of Colorado – Denver
PATHOLOGY
Garrett Chan ................................................ UC San Francisco Catherine Gereg ..................................... Yale-New Haven Hospital Dore Grier Guptil.......................... University of Vermont Medical Center Mohammed Wali .......... Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, Mass.)
PEDIATRICS
Abigail Belser ....................................... Boston Children’s Hospital Julia Clemens ............University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (Madison) Alim Esemenli .................... N.Y. Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center Jennifer Holland .............................Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Kelly MacPherson ...................... Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital Colby McGinn ..................................... UMass Chan Medical School Adessa Morano ........................... University of Vermont Medical Center Kathleen O’Hara ............. University of North Carolina Hospitals (Chapel Hill) Melanie Parziale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . University of Chicago Medical Center Megan Prue .............................. University of Vermont Medical Center Phuong Tran .................................. University of Colorado – Denver
PHYSICAL MEDICINE & REHABILITATION
Claudia Russell ................................... Thomas Jefferson University
PRELIMINARY SURGERY
Emma Levine ............................ Vanderbilt University Medical Center Shayan McGee ............................Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
PRIMARY MEDICINE
Alexander Braun .............................. Boston University Medical Center Kayla Sturtevant .......................... University of Vermont Medical Center
PSYCHIATRY
Matthew Brandt ......................... University of Maryland Medical Center Jose Calderon ....................................... Yale-New Haven Hospital Noorin Damji .................................. Duke University Medical Center Adam Fakhri ................................................ Emory University Rachel Harrison ............. University of North Carolina Hospitals (Chapel Hill) Jordan Munger...........................University of Washington Boise (Idaho) Alice Peng ..............................................UMass Chan – Baystate
RADIATION ONCOLOGY
Luke Higgins ......................University of Michigan Hospitals – Ann Arbor
THORACIC SURGERY
Lauren Bougioukas ................ Zucker School of Medicine – Northwell (N.Y.)
VASCULAR SURGERY
Jugerta Istrefi .............................. Montefiore Medical Center/Einstein
A Day of Celebration and Commitment
IN-PERSON COMMENCEMENT RETURNS TO IRA ALLEN CHAPEL.
READ MORE ABOUT COMMENCEMENT: MED.UVM.EDU/VTMEDICINE/WEB-EXTRAS On Sunday, May 22, 106 members of the medical Class of 2022 strode across the stage at Ira Allen Chapel to receive their hoods and M.D. diplomas – the first such fully in-person ceremony since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Commencement speakers, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, acknowledged the hurdles these graduates had endured due to the pandemic and the important impact they were poised to make to ensure a better future for society.
In his welcome remarks, Dean Richard L. Page said, “Hard work and long hours come with medical education, but nobody predicted you would become a doctor amid the greatest worldwide health crisis in a century.” He added that, “You, the Class of 2022, are the clearest indicators … of better times ahead … You’ve gained incomparable experience in helping to fight a pandemic … you have shown commitment, compassion and professionalism.”
UVM Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Isabelle Desjardins, M.D., encouraged the new doctors to stay humble and keep their patients at the center of all of their decisions. “You are entering medicine at a time when the amount of new knowledge to acquire far exceeds anyone’s capacity to retain it,” she said. “You will have to remain curious, constantly challenging yourself to keep your mind open. There will be moments … when you don’t
Senator Bernie Sanders at the lectern, speaking at Commencement 2022.
– RICHARD L. PAGE, M.D., DEAN
know what else to do or to say … these are the moments when integrity, and humanity, will matter most.”
While he opened by congratulating the medical Class of 2022 on their “incredible efforts to be where you are today,” Senator Sanders asked the graduates for something “above and beyond your skills as physicians,” in his capacity as chair of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security. He told them that, “The overall healthcare system in which you all will be practicing is a system which is dysfunctional, extraordinarily wasteful and expensive, and cruel,” and said, “I am asking you, as physicians, to lead the effort to fundamentally change that system.”
Graduating senior Francis Mtuke, M.D., delivered the Student Address. Born in Zimbabwe, Mtuke credits his mother with courageously journeying nearly 10,000 miles to take a chance on a new life in the United States, where her hard work led to a career as a nurse. Inspired by his mother, Mtuke has embraced opportunities, graduating from Texas A&M University, attending medical school in Vermont, and entering a specialty in which he says he will be “one of the mere 2.6 percent of anesthesiologists that are black males.” (Mtuke began his anesthesiology residency this summer at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.) Mtuke said his story is not unique, and that he and his classmates reached the goal of achieving their M.D. because they took a chance on the Larner College of Medicine and the College took a chance on each of them.
Mtuke told his classmates, “Because of the chance we took, thousands of war veterans, mothers, fitness instructors, authors, chefs, musicians, athletes, and so many more will have a chance taken on them. A chance taken by doctors who … were also given the opportunity to hone in on the intangibles of being a physician: namely compassion, empathy, and dedication to service.”
UVM’s Graduate College Ceremony, held May 21 in the Gutterson Fieldhouse, was presided over by Graduate College Dean Cindy Forehand, Ph.D., a professor of neurological sciences at the Larner College of Medicine. UVM Provost Patty Prelock, Ph.D., provided a reflection, telling graduates that, “Yes, this is truly a day of celebration, but it is also a day of commitment to the future and a commitment to the important role each of you will play in creating a safe, sustainable, just, equitable, inclusive and prosperous tomorrow, not just for some – but for all.” Doctoral and master’s degree recipients from the Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Medical Science, and Public Health graduate programs were hooded at the event.
